Diagnostics and Fault-Tolerant Path Planning

Abstract: This chapter presents a flatness-based approach to fault-tolerant control. For a differentially flat system, it is possible to find a set of variables, called flat outputs, such that states and control inputs can be expressed as functions of flat outputs and their time derivatives. The fault detection and isolation stage is implemented using a simple threshold-based approach, and the residual signal is obtained by comparing the signal coming from the sensor and the fault-free version obtained from the differential flatness. Regarding reconfiguration, the redundant state signals could be used as the controller reference in order to hide the fault effects. This will be helpful to provide an entirely flatness-based fault-tolerant control strategy.